The High Holidays are over. I’ve mentioned before in posts that I sort of key our sense of time off of our Jewish holiday schedule. It’s a good way to live, in anticipation of this or that time of communal celebration. In between Simchat Torah and Passover, aside from Shabbos and what minyan times we can

On the week of her bat mitzvah, Amelia received an award for her first year of field hockey. She never held a stick before, but she got out on the field and put her all into blocking shots. At a game against Old Town last week, she had two stunning saves, the kind that look

Photo credit: Joe Angseesing, from the Internet Bird Collection The First Amendment is important to me. I think it’s important to most of us. As disconcerting as the now continuing marches in Charlottesville are, I prefer to think less about content and more about unrestrained exercise. When I think about the content, I realize that it

I awoke the other night, prior to Rosh Hashanah, to what sounded like the terrified scream of a teenage girl. I checked on Amelia immediately. She was snoring in her bed in the third floor loft. No, the sound was coming from outside. It wasn’t an owl. We have plenty of those and their noises don’t

Last night, serendipity caused a delightful convergence that reminds me the distance between Jews is largely arbitrary. Our shul had three people and our permanent non-Jewish guest (a displaced Southern gentleman with a heart of gold) turn out for selichot, so we crossed the street and joined a service led by our local Chabad shaliach. It

Grandparents. I have very few memories with mine, but I also have memories with people who stepped up when my were unable to or were gone. Brian has tons of memories of his grandparents and he relives them everyday. Often when coming to a hard decision we think of what advice they would give or

Judaism is a living contradiction. At some points we learned that we should never question Hashem, but should obey on blind faith. Look what happened when Moses hit the rock. Look at Nachshon walking into the Red Sea. Etc. Yet at some points Judaism is all about questioning, just look at the Talmud or Avraham

A few months ago, a weird guy carrying a canoe paddle showed up at our shul. He walked in, wearing a fedora, a leather jacket, carrying a backpack and an oar. I’m not sure what he was doing there. Most Jews at this point are conditioned to take this sort of thing passively, avoid and

It was only about a quarter of the mile up the East Branch Penobscot from the Lunksoos put-in when Atticus and I saw the bull moose. I’ve lived in Alaska and spent many nights in the Adirondack and White Mountains backcountry. I’ve seen moose. On Fort Richardson, Alaska, where I was stationed in the Army,